


all fall down

by neufheures



Category: Lovelyz, SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: 19th Century, Alternate Universe - Mermaid, F/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-13 05:10:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11177742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neufheures/pseuds/neufheures
Summary: Wonwoo was living in a fairy tale, except it wasn't obvious which one it was: the one with the happily ever after, or the one where they all turned to dust?(But for now, he just found himself falling for Yein.)





	all fall down

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by anonymous at loveteen-s.

Wonwoo had heard of horror stories passed down generations to generations, since he was just a child with stubby fingers trying to remember what came after 5. As time went by, his common sense also developed, and he regarded those stories as a way for his parents—and their parents, and their grandparents—to tell him not to do things that would harm him, to make him stay away from dangerous places.

He understood them, because they lived by the sea and as much as it was a playground for Wonwoo, a small child could get swept away if he wandered alone, so his parents made up stories about a sea witch who would take him into the water with her if he went to the seaside after the sun has set, or the sand that would swallow him into the ground if he wandered into the cave.

However, none of the stories really stuck with him except for one. It was a story that his parents told him in hushed tone, about a spirit in the little forest by the sea where all the sharp rocks were. The forest was about 500 meters from the edge of the village and they told him the spirit used to sing on some nights, some years ago, because she was lonely, but for some reasons she had stopped, so his parents were worried that she was “scheming” in there and would do something to anyone who would dare step foot in the forest.

He didn’t actually believe the story, but the slight fear he saw in his parents’ eyes as they were telling him the story compelled him to check the forest out. And for a more exciting effect, he was going at night and by himself. He was 19, those tales didn’t pertain to him anymore. He could just say he was going to Soonyoung’s house.

So, on Sunday night, with a bow in his hand and a quiver containing arrows around his waist (for precautions), Wonwoo walked the 300 meters from his village while looking back to see if anyone had seen him going towards the forest, and spent the remaining 200 wondering what he would find in it.

He stopped at the edge of the forest where even the moonlight seemed to be having a hard time penetrating through the leaves and branches. He pulled out an arrow and took a deep breath, prepared for anything that the forest might hold.

The forest was not as dense as it looked, Wonwoo realized as he went deeper into it. The trees looked like they had opened a path for Wonwoo to walk on, so he just followed it quietly, his eyes and ears on full alert.

As it turned out, the path was quite short when he found that he had already reached the end of the forest and the start of the sand. The sharp rocks his parents were talking about were there, standing menacingly under the full moon. But the rocks weren’t the only one there.

There was someone sitting on one of the lesser sharp rocks, right in the front row where the waves hit the strongest. The person had the longest and most beautiful blonde hair he had ever seen, almost touching the rock they were sitting on. It didn’t seem like he had seen this person anywhere before, so they could be a dangerous outsider.

Wonwoo drew his bow and, as carefully as he could, stepped onto the sand.

“Hey!” Wonwoo called out, the sound loud above the crashing waves. It certainly reached the other party as Wonwoo could see them getting startled. “Who are—”

The last word was stuck in his throat when the person turned around towards him, and his eyes couldn’t focus on anything else other than how beautiful she—it was a girl, definitely a girl—looked, and Wonwoo wanted to ask why her doe eyes were filled with such fear until he realized that it was because he was pointing an arrow her way.

The girl turned back towards the sea and, to Wonwoo’s horror, jumped into the water.

He didn’t know which one he was most shocked at: that she jumped into the cold, night water, or that he briefly saw fish tail instead of legs.

Wonwoo rushed to the rocks, hopping onto every rock that led to the spot where the girl was, almost slipping and cutting his feet open a couple of times, and looked down into the dark water when he had reached. His eyes searched for any signs of the girl but to no avail. She simply jumped into the sea and disappeared.

Wonwoo sat back on the spot where the girl was sitting in part astonishment and part confusion. As he put his bow down next to him, he felt something under his hand. He looked to his left and carefully took the shiny thing into his hand.

It was a chain bracelet with a single, tiny pearl in the middle. Wonwoo glanced at the sea, wondering if this was the girl’s. An idea popped into his head and he quickly stood up, taking his bow with him as he walked back to the shore and the pearl bracelet in the pocket of his pants.

*

“Dad, do you think mermaids really exist?” Wonwoo asked his father the next day as they were fixing the chicken coop in the backyard. He couldn’t get much sleep last night as his mind kept replaying his encounter with the mysterious girl. He had examined the bracelet, not really knowing what he was hoping to find, and didn’t find anything in the end. It was just a plain, chain bracelet with a pearl in the middle.

So he went to his book collection, a shelf at the end of his bed, and pulled out anything that he thought contained information about mythical creatures, especially mermaid, but found that his interest was apparently more on historical books.

“I do,” his father answered as he hammered down a nail into the woods. Wonwoo looked up at his father in curiosity, wishing to hear his reasons. His father squatted down next to him and said, “They’re bad luck.”

Wonwoo frowned. “They are?”

His father nodded and squatted down next to him. “There is a story around here, not well-known, that a mermaid came to a village and completely obliterated it some centuries ago.”

“How did they destroy the whole village by themselves? They don’t even have legs,” Wonwoo asked with genuine curiosity. If the girl he saw last night was really a mermaid, he couldn’t fathom how such a creature, who flinched when he called out and disappeared to avoid him, could cause havoc on land.

His father merely shrugged. “But a half-human, half-fish doesn’t exactly scream good luck charm, does it?” he asked, Wonwoo knew rhetorically, so he didn’t answer and instead his mind wandered to the bracelet in the pocket of his pants.

*

Wonwoo sneaked out of the village again that night, though this time without his bow and arrows. He had known that the forest wasn’t as menacing as it looked and if the girl was there on the rocks again, he didn’t want his weapon to spook her.

The girl was there on the same rock, but Wonwoo noticed that she was fidgeting, before she turned and seemed like she was looking around for something. He couldn’t see her face clearly in the night, but her body moved anxiously as she leaned over the rocks and looked to her left and right. Wonwoo grabbed the bracelet in his pocket. She must’ve been looking for it.

Wonwoo took his shoes off behind a tree as quietly as possible and peeked behind it to make sure she was still there. He saw that she wasn’t moving, only looking up at the sky, and he was struck with awe at how her body was just _blue_ , up until her chest, but not the kind of blue that indicated loss of blood. It was the color of the clear sea during the day; light and clean.

His legs moved on their own accord, unveiling him from behind the tree, to the surprised face of the girl. Her body backed away a little and Wonwoo immediately fished the bracelet from his pocket to reveal it to her.

“Hi,” Wonwoo started, with a voice hopefully loud enough for her to hear with the distance between them. He raised his left hand so she knew that he wasn’t carrying anything else besides the bracelet. “Are you looking for this?”

The girl squinted her eyes as Wonwoo took a few careful steps closer to her. Her attention was on his hand. “This is yours, is it not?” he asked, taking another step forward.

There was recognition flashing across her face as her eyes widened, but she didn’t do anything to get it from him, to Wonwoo’s confusion, until he realized that it would be hard for her to flop from rock to rock to get to him, so he kept his eyes on her as he climbed up the first rock, her doe eyes locking into his.

He saw the slight wince on her face when he almost slipped once, but they just kept looking at each other, Wonwoo finding it harder and harder to take his eyes off her, until he reached the stone before hers. Wonwoo lowered himself and placed the bracelet on the rock before he broke their eye contact to take a step backward.

Her eyes moved downwards at the bracelet and she looked at it for a moment before her hand reached forward to take it. Wonwoo waited with baited breath, didn’t know what to do next, what to say next, what would happen to him now that she knew he took her bracelet.

However, to his surprise, the girl offered him a small smile and softly said, “Thank you.”

He watched her put her bracelet on, patting the pearl on her wrist, before looking up at Wonwoo again. “Thank you for keeping my bracelet safe while I wasn’t here,” she said, the smile still on her lips.

Wonwoo blinked rapidly as if it could quickly clear out his mind, but he managed a simple, “You’re welcome,” as an answer. He supposed he could leave it at that and go home, but his mouth seemed to be working together with his legs in defying him and a, “I’m Wonwoo,” came out instead.

The girl’s smile seemed to widen a bit at his sudden introduction. Tucking her hair behind her ear, she lowered her gaze and said, “My name is Yein.”

Yein’s bashful gaze was different than the suspicious one she had as they were locking eyes earlier, and it somehow made Wonwoo smile. She looked lovely under the moonlight.

“Can I, um,” Wonwoo pointed to a rock next to hers where its top had been smoothed by erosion. Yein looked to her left and nodded as soon as she understood what he meant. Wonwoo hopped onto the rock next to the one he was standing on to get to the one next to Yein, as if he was playing hopscotch.

They shared a polite smile as Wonwoo sat down, though Yein averted her eyes right after to stare at the waves. Now, sitting less than a meter away from her, Wonwoo could finally see her as she was, completely.

Her body, from her chest down to her—Wonwoo still had a hard time processing it— _tail_ was a beautiful gradient of turquoise that shimmered under the moonlight. She would’ve blended really well in the sea during the day, especially with her shiny blonde locks. The fishermen and sailors could’ve mistaken it as the sun shining through the water.

“I wanted to thank you again,” Yein said, breaking Wonwoo out of his stupor. He blinked up at her, waiting. Yein smiled and looked down at her bracelet. “This was my sister’s. I don’t know what I would do if I had lost it.”

Wonwoo noticed the solemn look she gave at the bracelet as she touched it, but he didn’t want to press any further as they had just met, so Wonwoo just cleared his throat and said, “It’s no problem.”

When Yein looked up, she gave him the biggest smile he had seen her with, but still tight-lipped, like she couldn’t help but still be wary of him. “Do you live at that village?” she asked, pointing past Wonwoo’s shoulder, to the moderately brighter part of the beach.

“Yes, I do,” Wonwoo replied.

“I’ve never been to that part of the sea. My parents didn’t allow me to,” Yein said, a small pout present on her lips as she was talking about her parents. It sent a warm feeling to Wonwoo’s stomach and he didn’t know if it was from thinking about _merparents_ (Wonwoo cackled inwardly) or seeing her pout.

But her parents were right, Wonwoo thought. He couldn’t imagine what chaos would ensue around the village if Yein had shown up there. His mind wandered back to this morning when his father blatantly stated that mermaids were bad luck.

As he looked at Yein, with her enchanting almond eyes and bashful smile, he couldn’t understand how people could label someone like her as bad luck.

“So, are you one of the fishermen from the village?” Yein asked again, bringing her hair to one side so she could twirl her finger in it.

“I help my father sometimes, but,” Wonwoo paused, thinking that he was this close to admitting something that he had never done to his father, but he guessed why not, since the chance of Yein meeting his father would be second to none, “but I prefer the land.”

“Why?”

“I just like the land,” Wonwoo answered. “I like being able to just stand and not get seasick.”

“What’s a ‘seasick’? Do you get sick of the sea? Why would you get sick of the sea?” Yein ended her attack of questions with a pout that once again sent fuzzy feelings in Wonwoo’s stomach and a smile to the corner of his mouth that he tried hard to keep to himself.

Wonwoo had to explain to her what “seasick” meant and assured her that he could never get sick of the beautiful sea that might as well served as his backyard, and now he had to explain what a “backyard” was.

“We don’t have backyards at our houses,” she said, looking far off as if she was thinking of something. “Being a human sounds fun. All we have in the sea is water.”

Wonwoo offered no response, instead choosing to look at the sea as well, letting the crisp night breeze clear his mind, and it made him remember that Yein was basically not wearing any type of clothing.

“Aren’t you cold?” Wonwoo asked.

Yein turned to him with raised eyebrows, and quickly shook her head. “Well, a little. But I’m going home now, and it’s always warmer when I’m home,” she said.

Wonwoo nodded in understanding. He should probably head home as well before his parents realized that he was not actually at Soonyoung’s house.

“It was very nice meeting you,” Wonwoo said.

Yein turned to him, her smile wide and her eyes sincere, and said, “It was nice meeting you too, Wonwoo. I’ll see you tomorrow, I hope?”

He watched in awe as she propelled herself off the rock and into the water, could make out the blonde of her hair and the blue of her body before she swam farther into the sea, engulfed in darkness.

Wonwoo didn’t know how long he just sat there alone, looking at the part of the sea he last saw the wave of Yein’s hair, not thinking about anything. He slowly blinked, half expecting he would be looking at the ceiling of his room when he opened his eyes, but he was still very much looking at the sea, letting the hem of his pants soaking wet from the waves.

He looked down at it and took a deep breath. He didn’t answer her question earlier, too busy being amazed, but he hoped she knew he would definitely be here tomorrow night as well.

*

He sensed his parents would question him if he said he was going to Soonyoung’s house again so this time, he said he was going to visit the night market with Jihoon. He was actually planning on going to the market, but without Jihoon. Jihoon hated the crowd at the market. But if he said he was going alone, his mother would want to tag along and he couldn’t sneak out after.

To Wonwoo’s delight, Yein was already on her usual spot on the rock when he arrived at the end of the forest. He took his shoes off and walked his way to her, but only calling her once he had stepped up a rock, close enough for her to hear clearly.

Yein turned around at his voice, a smile was ready on her face but it was soon dropped in lieu of a gape. Wonwoo’s lips formed a small smile when he saw it, his feet took cautious steps on the rocks, in his hand a white cotton candy he got from the market.

“What is that?” Yein asked, her eyes following the candy moving as Wonwoo’s hand moved.

Wonwoo took a seat at the rock next to her before answering, “It’s a cotton candy. Do you want some?”

“It’s edible?” she asked again, staring at the sweets in wide-eyed wonderment. Wonwoo chuckled, nodding before picking some and eating it to demonstrate. That seemed to encourage her to try it, though she still seemed a bit hesitant before plucking some.

Wonwoo carefully watched her; how she put the candy slowly in her mouth, how her eyebrows jumped, her smile widening, her eyes shutting close as if to savor the feeling. He heard her going, “Mm!” in utter delight and knew he made the right choice of buying a cotton candy tonight.

“It vanished,” Yein said, excitement clear on her face. Wonwoo grinned at her and offered the candy again, which she happily took a chunk off this time.

Since cotton candy didn’t go well with water, he figured Yein had never had any before, and he thought she’d like it. He was glad his hunch was right, because he didn’t even like cotton candy that much. Yein looked like she could finish it all by herself.

“This is so weird,” Yein laughed. “How could it just vanish like that?”

Wonwoo’s explanation was just, “Magic.” He ended with a laugh, indicating that he was joking, but Yein took it seriously.

“Humans have magic? We do too,” she said, and Wonwoo’s laughter died down in an instant.

“You do?” Wonwoo asked in disbelief. He should’ve expected this kind of thing from a mermaid population, but the fact that a mermaid actually admitted to him that her people used magic was still hard to believe. Even him being acquainted with a real, living mermaid was still hard to believe. “What kind of magic?”

Yein opened her mouth but quickly shut it close like she had just realized that she shouldn’t have said anything in the first place. After a moment, she finally said, “I don’t know, I’m not a magician.”

“Can you exchange your voice for a pair of legs?” Wonwoo asked, more for the sake of the conversation rather than to feed his curiosity.

Yein glanced at him from the corner of her eye and picked another cotton candy from its stick before saying, “I have no idea. Why did you ask?”

Wonwoo shrugged, popping some cotton candy into his mouth. “It’s just, there was a tale about a mermaid who exchanged her voice for a pair of legs and lived on the land.”

Yein’s eyes widened. “There was?”

Wonwoo told her about the tale of the mermaid from a faraway land, briefly, because he didn’t remember what happened in detail after she got her legs, so he only told her up until that point. With every sentence that he uttered, he kept wondering if the story was true and that Yein knew something about it.

Once he was finished, Yein was looking like she was never listening to his story and instead had been racking her brain.

“This is the first time that I’ve heard of this story,” she said, the frown between her eyebrows deepening.

“So you’ve never heard of a mermaid who did that?”

“Turned into human and lived on land? No, never,” Yein said, shaking her head, her face bewildered. The story must’ve sounded illogical even to a mermaid’s standard.

Wonwoo remembered something that happened at the end, but wasn’t sure if it was the real ending or not, but he told her anyway. “I remember the prince married another princess instead and the mermaid jumped into the sea and turned into sea foam,” Wonwoo said, a laughter then followed. “You must be thinking that this is nonsense.”

Wonwoo shook his head and looked at the actual sea foam on the waves, thinking that this is nonsense, and missed the smile that dropped from Yein’s face. He turned his head to her when he didn’t hear any comment from her and found her looking down at her bracelet, her fingers caressing the lone pearl on it.

“Yein?” She looked up at him with a hint of longing in her eyes and Wonwoo was suddenly afraid that he had said something wrong. “Are you okay?”

Yein’s eyes glanced down at her bracelet again before looking back up at him, and she instead said, “I have to go.” She paused, and Wonwoo thought this was his chance to ask again, but she continued with an apology, “I’m sorry I finished all of it,” pointing at the cotton candy stick with only small pieces of candy left on it.

“It’s okay, I bought it for you,” Wonwoo replied, his voice small and concerned.

Yein’s face softened and a small smile made its way onto her lips at Wonwoo’s reply. “Thank you,” she said. “I hope I’ll see you again tomorrow night.”

Just like last night, Yein jumped into the water before Wonwoo could even offer up a reply, leaving him partly in awe of her and partly worried for her, that he didn’t realize he had dropped his hands to his side, the cotton candy stick touching the wet rock, the candy itself vanishing.

*

Wonwoo decided not to ask Yein about last night when he saw her back to her normal, cheery self the next night. He was afraid she’d look like she was the night before: sad and fragile.

He didn’t bring any food as the market was closed that night, but he did bring one of his books with him. It was a children’s book he dusted off from the top of his book shelf, a simple story about a boy who tried doing one good deed every day to live life to the fullest. He thought it was a little clichéd, but hoped that it could cheer Yein up a little.

“So he lived his life to the fullest…” Yein said at the end of the story, cheeks resting on her palms, having tried on different positions to make herself comfortable on the rock as she listened to the story, finally settling on bending forward and cupping her cheeks into her hands. Wonwoo had to read it to her because she couldn’t.

“Yes, he did,” Wonwoo said, closing the book and putting it into a small bag he carried with him that he kept as far away from the crashing waves as possible, but still within his reach. “I believe we all should do that. Make use of the life that we were given, because we don’t live forever.” He paused then, remembering that he wasn’t talking to a human being, and asked, “Do you?”

Yein laughed and shook her head. “Even mermaids are not immortals,” she said.

“More reasons why we should live life to the fullest.”

Yein looked like she was thinking, as if his stance on living intrigued her. She sat up straight and said, “I actually have something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

“What is it?”

She smiled a mischievous smile, something that Wonwoo had never seen her do, and glanced at the forest behind her. “I want to touch a tree.”

Wonwoo snorted at her reply and she slapped his shoulder, stopping the snort from becoming a laugh. “We don’t have trees in the sea,” she said, pouting. When Wonwoo opened her mouth to say something, she quickly added, “Seaweed is not a tree. It’s in the name.”

“Well,” Wonwoo looked back at the forest, then at her. “I can carry you to the edge of the forest, but…” he trailed off, glancing at her tail fully submerged in the water.

Yein understood it instantly and said, “I can be completely out of the water for a few minutes.”

Wonwoo still looked unsure, looking back and forth between her and the forest, guessing which rocks would be the fastest and the safest for him to step on, counting how much time it would take for him to basically run to the edge of the forest, let her do what she wanted to do, and come back. It certainly would take more than “a few minutes”, if a few meant 2 or 3.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

Yein nodded fervently. It seemed like she had thought about touching a tree multiple times before but never had the chance to. She really wanted this, Wonwoo realized when he saw hope glinting in her eye. How could he say no to those doe eyes?

“Alright, but I’ll be quick,” he said, but was drowned out by Yein’s loud cheers. “And you must tell me when you need water, okay?”

Yein nodded again but it looked like his conditions were already out of her mind by then, judging by how she was bouncing in excitement on the rock she was sitting on. She actually looked like she was younger than Wonwoo like that, but then again, Wonwoo had no idea how old Yein actually was.

Wonwoo stood up with her in his arms and started taking the extra careful steps back to the beach. It was probably the 3-day experience of navigating his way across the rocks that he got to the sandy part of the beach relatively quick. Once his feet had stepped onto the sand, he started walking fast to reach the edge of the forest. Yein didn’t move much in his arms, didn’t even utter a single word, afraid she would break his concentration.

“This is a tree,” Wonwoo said as soon as they had entered the mouth of the forest. He turned to a tree to his right and pointed down at the ground with his chin. “And those are my shoes.”

Yein, after an uncharacteristically long silence, finally let out a laughter, turning her head to look at his shoes on the ground.

Wonwoo brought her closer to a tree with a branch that hung low, and her hands immediately unwounded themselves from his neck to touch the dry and frail autumn leaf, and she gasped when it crumpled in her hand.

“D-did I hurt it?” Yein stuttered, looking at Wonwoo with a childlike fear in her eyes that it sent a warm feeling to his stomach. Quite unfamiliar, but welcomed.

Wonwoo smiled. “No, it was its time. It’s autumn now, so all the leaves have turned dry and brown. The trees are preparing for the cold winter,” he explained to her as she blinked in realization and looked back at the tree.

Her hand moved to touch the tree bark, feeling the rough texture against her smooth hand, and a smile formed on her lips. “This feels weird,” she said, giggling. She touched a twig and other leaves—some crumpled; some didn’t, much to her delight—and Wonwoo could even see her happy smile in the dark forest, but all he could think about was if she was in need of water right now but didn’t say.

He was about to ask, but Yein was faster with her question. “Is that the way to your village?”

Wonwoo looked at the path she was pointing at, the same one he took every night. “Yes, it is,” he simply answered before he asked, “Don’t you need water right now?”

Yein tilted her head. “Not really,” she said. “But if you’re so worried about me, we can go back to the rocks now. I’ve touched enough.”

“Are you sure?”

Yein smiled and nodded before circling her arms back around Wonwoo’s neck, and he took it as a cue for him to go back to the rocks. He repositioned his hand behind her back and walked back to the shore. This time, Yein would not quiet down.

“It’s really hard and I could knock my knuckles against it and it would make a sound,” she told Wonwoo about her newfound experience with a tree bark. “It’s really nothing like I’ve touched before. It’s amazing.”

Wonwoo couldn’t stop smiling all the way back to the rocks, listening to Yein’s impression on touching a twig for the first time in her life, her slender arms around her neck, her cheek pressed against his shoulder.

*

Wonwoo looked at the calendar hanging behind his bedroom door and realized that it had been two months since he first met Yein. He had done a lot of things with her and for her to get to know how humans lived. He had taught her how to play rock, paper, scissors; he had brought her many foods from the night market—some she liked, some that she didn’t; although that wasn’t a lot; he had read her some of his books, but he realized that he still had no idea who Yein was other than that she was a mermaid.

So that night, after taking his usual spot on the rock next to Yein, Wonwoo finally asked, “Why don’t you tell me about yourself?”

Yein stopped playing with the pearl on her bracelet to look at him quizzically. “About myself?” she reiterated, and Wonwoo nodded. “Example?”

“For example, how old are you?”

However, Yein threw another question back at him. “How old do you think I am?”

Wonwoo frowned. He had thought about it but never really put a number on it. He always thought she looked younger than he was. “Around 16, 17 years old?”

Yein beamed, seemingly pleased with his guess. “I’m actually 115 years old this year,” she answered.

Wonwoo widened his eyes in shock and it took him a while before he said, “You’re joking.” But Yein shook her head, still with the same satisfied smile on her lips, and Wonwoo’s eyes couldn’t have gotten any wider. “You said mermaids are not immortals!”

“We’re not, but we live a long life,” Yein replied with a hand covering her laugh. “I will probably look older in 10 or 20 years.”

“Then you’ll need to live your life to the fullest for a really long time,” Wonwoo muttered, though Yein still heard it, evoking another laughter out of her, and that was when something caught Wonwoo’s eye.

“What’s the story behind your bracelet?” he asked. “It seems very precious to you.”

Yein’s laughter died down instantly and her eyes were suddenly filled with such sadness that Wonwoo regretted asking about it. He had been very curious about the bracelet but if asking about it meant Yein being sad then he thought it wasn’t worth it. “I’m sorry, I di—”

“It was my sister,” Yein said.

Wonwoo remembered her saying that as she was thanking him. “I remember you saying that,” he said, nodding. “It was your sister’s bracelet.”

“No,” Yein shook her head, weak like she had given up on everything. “It was my sister.”

Wonwoo blinked rapidly, trying to comprehend but failed. “What do you mean?”

Yein sighed, contemplating whether to tell him or not, but eventually started, “When she died, instead of turning into sea foam, she…” Yein paused, her fingers started playing with the pearl again, as if touching it gave her the comfort that she needed to tell the story. “…she turned into pearls.”

Wonwoo was stunned. There were so many questions running through his head. Was the tale real all along? Was Yein’s sister the mermaid in the tale? When did she die? But one thing that Wonwoo could actually ask was, “Why did she die?”

Yein bit on her bottom lip like she was holding back tears. “The mermaid in your story exchanged her voice for a pair of legs, correct?” At Wonwoo’s nods, she continued, “My sister exchanged her life for her prince’s.”

She lowered her head, trying to hide her face from Wonwoo’s stare but he could still see a teardrop running down her cheek and all he wanted to do was brush it away from her face, but found himself unable to. He was never good at comforting people grieving because of a third party, much less because of him. His fingers clenched and unclenched, decided to and against doing something to soothe her, but when he saw her sobbing as she wiped her tears away, Wonwoo’s hand moved to hold her cold hand without him even thinking.

Yein looked at his hand before tracing it back to him, looking up at his face—concerned, awkward, apologetic—with tears glistening her eyes. Wonwoo squeezed her hand slightly, partly wishing to warm it and partly hoping that she could feel the sympathy and comfort that he was channeling through it.

To his relief, a smile made its way to her lips. It was small, just a tug of her lips; but it reached her eyes, her soft gaze made Wonwoo unknowingly squeeze her hand tighter just so he could deal with his heart, which soon went haywire when Yein put her hand on top of his.

Another smile bloomed on her face, a bit wider than the last. No words were exchanged between them, but Wonwoo knew, when her fingers grazed over the back of his hand, that she appreciated his effort of consoling her.

The calming sound of the rippling waves filled the silence between them. Wonwoo wished they could stay in that moment forever.

After what seemed like forever, Yein finally broke the quiet between them and softly said, “I should go now,” before taking her hand off Wonwoo’s. With a nod, Wonwoo reluctantly pulled his hand back, freeing hers. “I hope I’ll see you again tomorrow night,” she said, like a routine.

“I’ll be here,” Wonwoo replied, and he expected her to jump into the sea right away, like she always did, but she didn’t. He raised a questioning eyebrow at her and she worried on her lip. He was about to ask what was wrong, but the words never came out before Yein leaned across the small gap between their rocks and kissed him on the cheek.

Her lips were cold like the hand Wonwoo held just a few minutes ago, but it sent a contradictive feeling to his stomach before spreading to his chest. By the time Yein pulled away, warmth had spread to even the tips of his fingers except for one place: the cheek that Yein kissed, the stark contrast of the temperatures kept his mind focused on the feeling.

“Thank you, Wonwoo,” Yein said as soon as she was back to sitting on her rock. The wind blew her hair to cover half of her face and she tucked it behind her ear to control it. Wonwoo thought he had never seen someone as graceful as she was, “for always being here.”

Wonwoo, who was more or less stupefied at this point, couldn’t offer an answer that sounded meaningful so instead he managed to stutter out an, “I-I try my best.”

Yein released a laugh that made her eyes crinkle, the kind that Wonwoo liked the best, before waving at him and finally jumping into the sea, disappearing into the water without looking back.

When Wonwoo had reached his village, the warmth that engulfed him at the beach was already gone, but the feeling of Yein’s lips on his cheek remained the coldest.

*

Wonwoo was anxious.

His mother had been talking about opening a food stand at the night market for months now. He supported his mother’s decision, but didn’t think he would have a part in it, since she never stated so. But when Wonwoo got home that night, still inwardly feeling giddy from Yein’s kiss, his mother told him that he was going to help her with the stand at the market tomorrow night.

He couldn’t defy his mother who just wanted to help with the family’s economic situation, and he loved her too much to let her man the stand alone, so he had no choice but to nod.

He couldn’t sleep well that night, thinking back to Yein’s words. Thank you for always being here echoed back-to-back with her I hope I’ll see you again tomorrow night and even after closing his eyes, Yein’s soft smile was imprinted on the back of his eyelids.

He tossed and turned in his bed the whole night, worried that he was going to let Yein down. He sighed, cheek pressed against his pillow, and hoped that the mermaid wouldn’t think too much into why he wasn’t going to be there.

*

The stand was doing moderately well on its first night, Wonwoo witnessed firsthand how much money they were making, what with him manning the register. He gave a couple their change and watched his mother whip up their ordered fried shrimps and fries, all the while thinking of how Yein would like the fries and be horrified at the fried shrimps.

He looked back at the direction of the forest. He couldn’t see it from where he was standing and he wondered if Yein was at the rocks already, waiting for him to show up with another snack from the night market.

*

Yein kept her back to the sea so she could look straight at the forest. She had been looking at the edge of the forest for some time now, feeling weird that Wonwoo was late. She didn’t usually need to wait long for him to show up, but she was done brushing her hair twice while waiting for him and he still hadn’t shown up. Yein pouted. She knew tonight was market night and was looking forward to new snacks that Wonwoo might be getting her.

She turned to look at the bright lights in the distance, what she assumed was where the market was taking place. Wonwoo could not have forgotten about her, could he? Yein asked herself multiple times before it turned into concern for his well-being. What if something happened to him on his way to meet her and no one knew because he sneaked out?

Yein bit on her bottom lip, looking at the forest again. “Wonwoo?” she started calling his name, louder every time, but no response came. It was impossible for her to go in there, so she hoped he wasn’t there before jumping back into the sea and swam along the shore.

She didn’t see Wonwoo anywhere on the way to the rocks from where she was swimming, so she kept swimming. She just wanted to see if Wonwoo was okay.

She just kept swimming while looking at the beach, not looking what was in front of her, and was surprised when her head hit something hard. She yelped, holding her head in her hands, and looked up to see what it was.

A fishing boat was in front of her, moving according to the waves, but there didn’t seem to be people on it. She sighed in relief and looked to her right, seeing a few buildings made from woods, and realized that she had entered the village territory; Wonwoo’s village’s.

She quickly submerged herself but only up until her nose so she could still see what was going on at the beach. To her disappointment, no one was at the beach, not even Wonwoo. Everybody must’ve been at the market, she thought, and with that, she went back to the rocks all by herself.

“I can enjoy the night without him,” Yein pouted once she was back on the rocks. She pulled herself up her usual spot and started doing what she had been doing there before Wonwoo showed up two months ago. Just staring into the ocean, clearing her mind with the sound of the waves.

She heaved out a big sigh not long after that, couldn’t quite put the fun in it anymore. Perhaps she had gotten used to having her mind filled with Wonwoo.

*

Wonwoo was ringing up a group of girls when he heard the commotion. It started with a buzz at the end of the market but quickly turned into a clamor that he couldn’t ignore. He thought there was a fight but people were shouting, “The beach, the beach!” so Wonwoo left his post to ask Junhui at the next stall as soon as the other came back from the commotion.

“Junhui, what’s going on?”

Junhui looked incredulous as he answered, “Someone said they saw a mermaid by the beach, but I’m not buying it. I mean—”

Wonwoo stood frozen in his place, Junhui’s voice sounding more and more distant. His mind tried to process the words he did hear but every time he made sense of it, his brain kept denying the information, but that was the only thing it could focus on. A mermaid by the beach. Wonwoo could feel his palms starting to sweat and Junhui was still talking.

“—yeah, and now everyone’s going there—”

“Going where?” Wonwoo cut him off, urgency clear in his voice.

“To the beach. They want to see it.”

It didn’t sound so harmful, except Wonwoo knew what it meant. They were going to try and catch it and he couldn’t imagine what would happen if they did catch it. Her.

Yein.

His legs had never moved faster in his life.

*

He didn’t even bother with taking his shoes off once he saw Yein sitting on her usual spot, he just ran past the trees to the rocks, shouting her name.

Yein looked back in surprise at the call of her name but her face instantly broke into a huge smile when she saw Wonwoo, and he wanted to smile back at her because that meant that everything was okay, but it wasn’t and he needed Yein to leave.

“Wonwoo, where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you. I thought something bad happened to you,” Yein said, her concern clearly heard in every word but seeing Wonwoo rushing over to her just deepened her frown even more.

“You—you what?” Wonwoo stopped on the rock before hers, panting.

Yein tilted her head, couldn’t understand why Wonwoo was looking so distraught. “I looked for you. I thought something bad happened to you.”

Wonwoo exhaled deeply, regulating his breath, before asking, “Were you anywhere by the beach? The village?”

“Yes, I swam there looking for you,” Yein replied. “But I kept my distance and there was nobody there,” she added with a pout that would usually calm Wonwoo down.

Instead, Wonwoo released a big sigh. “Well, there was somebody there. They saw you,” he said. In the distance, he could hear faint sounds of the villagers shouting about and that only made him more agitated. He saw Yein opening her mouth in disbelief, so he dropped to his knees to be at her eye level and grabbed her shoulders. “You need to leave, now. They’re coming for you.”

Yein’s eyes were filled with fear and confusion and Wonwoo was about to tell her to go again when he heard a loud, “Wonwoo!” that sounded all too familiar.

Yein jumped under his grip and Wonwoo had to take a breath before turning around, hands dropping from Yein’s shoulders to shield her, to face his father and more than a dozen other villagers. All weapons drawn and ready to fire.

“So this is where you’ve been sneaking out to every night,” his father started, sharp eyes looking past his son’s shoulder, right at Yein who was cowering behind Wonwoo.

“Please, just lower your weapons,” Wonwoo said warily. He could feel Yein gripping the back of his shirt.

“Wonwoo, get away from her,” his father instead said, and it boiled Wonwoo’s blood that no one was lowering their weapons.

“No,” Wonwoo said, hoping the tremor in his voice wasn’t noticeable above the sound of the waves. “I will not. You all need to get away from her and leave her alone. She’s not a bad luck like the tale had you believe.”

“But the tale is true,” a villager Wonwoo couldn’t have bothered to learn the name of spoke up.

“Maybe it is,” Wonwoo said. Ever since Yein told him the story of her sister, he had had an inkling as to which tale most likely told about her and the story of the destroyed village that his father told him two months ago could be it, although he still wasn’t sure. “But Yein has been here all this time and not one bad luck had befallen upon our village.”

“We can’t be too sure, Wonwoo,” his father spoke again, but Wonwoo knew he had made him think, judging by how long it took for him to respond and how his voice softened a bit.

“No, you are all insane,” Wonwoo hissed. “You will let her go and leave her alone.”

Everyone’s heads turned to Wonwoo’s father, stilled, holding with bated breath for the answer from the village chief.

“Very well,” Wonwoo’s father finally said, but it did nothing to let Wonwoo’s guard down. His arms were still held wide open to protect Yein, who had gone awfully quiet behind him. “She can go. But,” he paused, watching the frown deepening on his son’s face, “she can never come back here.”

Wonwoo couldn’t lie and said that he didn’t see this answer coming from his father, but his heart still dropped from the shock. Despite his clenched fists and thoughts of his life without Yein bombarding his mind, he still answered, through gritted teeth, “Okay.”

He squared his jaw and turned around to face Yein, the heartbreak clear as day on her face.

“You need to go. Please, Yein.” Gone was the strong façade he put on just seconds ago. His eyes were desperate and lost, and he knew Yein could clearly see them in his gaze. “Please.” He would beg her if he needed to.

“But,” Yein paused as her eye flew past his shoulders to look at the small army behind Wonwoo. When she met his gaze again, it mirrored his. “I’ll never get to see you again.”

“But you’ll live,” Wonwoo reasoned.

“But, I—you—” Yein’s sentence was stopped by her own sob, and another came out, and another, and she was shaking her head in denial, clutching onto Wonwoo’s shirt without a word.

For once, Wonwoo didn’t hesitate in wiping her tears away.

“Go,” Wonwoo said, cupping her face and thumbing tears from her cheeks. He looked at her, who had lowered her gaze and wiping her tears away with her hands, breaking Wonwoo’s heart with every sob that broke out.

Wonwoo tucked her hair behind her ear to distract himself from the sting of his own tears forming in his eyes and leaned down to kiss her on the forehead.

When he pulled away, Yein had stopped crying and finally looking at him with her doe eyes that he had always adored from the start. “I’m sorry,” he managed to say. “But I want you to live.”

Yein’s clutch on his shirt loosened and she looked stunned for a moment. The waves weren’t as violent as usual tonight. They were calm, lazily crashing against the rocks, and it allowed Wonwoo to hear Yein as she whispered, “I love you.”

The corner of Wonwoo’s lips quirked upward out of reflex, and in spite of the dire situation, he responded with a lighter heart, “I love you too.”

His answer seemed to put Yein’s mind at ease, even just for a little bit, indicated by the small smile that appeared on her lips, and bathed under the moonlight she looked as beautiful as the first night that he saw her. Still made him forget how to breathe, still sent warmth bubbling in his stomach.

Yein finally dropped her hand from his shirt and moved back, ready to go and never come back. Wonwoo took a deep breath, contemplating whether to see her go or not. As much as it pained him, he decided on the latter, turning his head away from her, but what he saw was horrifying.

It happened so fast that Wonwoo didn’t even think before jumping in front of an arrow, but when it hit him, punctured through his body like he was the dummy that he always used to practice, all that ran through his head was Yein is okay Yein is okay Yein is alive.

He could feel the coldness of the autumn sea as his body dropped into the ocean, but he felt hands under his body, holding his upper body above the water, and he heard screams. His name, everyone was screaming his name. Everyone, Wonwoo blinked up at the sky before his head slowly turned to his left, or Yein?

Wonwoo had never heard Yein so hysterical, her frantic voice calling for him. He wanted to answer, put her at ease, but no words came out of his opened mouth.

Yein started crying the moment Wonwoo began gasping, her tears dropping onto Wonwoo’s cheek. She heard people on the land calling Wonwoo’s name but when she saw, from the corner of her eye, that they were getting closer, Yein looked up and screamed, “Stay away!”

It stopped the entourage in their track, just like what Yein had hoped, but Wonwoo’s weak fingers gripped onto her arm, catching her attention. She looked down, tears brimming in her eyes, and was surprised to see a soft smile gracing Wonwoo’s lips. He brought his gaze to look at her in the eye, the smile dropping by the second.

“Wonwoo, Wonwoo, Wonwoo,” Yein started chanting his name as if it was a mantra that could heal him and tightened her hold of his body. She watched, terrified, as Wonwoo’s smile slipped away along with his fingers on her arm.

And then he just stopped blinking.

Yein waited for a second, two seconds, three, her chants of Wonwoo’s name grown more desperate, seven, eight seconds, but Wonwoo didn’t blink. His gaze had lost its usual warmth and affection. Instead it was blank, like he was seeing through her.

(But of course, Yein knew by then, that he wasn’t looking at anything.)

The pain seared through her body, the crushing feeling in her chest ripped out of her as she screamed for Wonwoo’s name, the lack of response tearing her heart. But when she finally took notice of the red coloring the water around them, her self control finally snapped.

She looked up at the people watching by the beach, just before the rocks, fury taking over her, and in her mind, she kept thinking that Wonwoo didn’t deserve to die, he didn’t deserve to die like this, he didn’t deserve this as huge wave towered behind her.

In a split second, the wave separated to avoid Yein and Wonwoo, but reattached itself before collapsing onto the beach, and people scrambled to get to the safety of the forest. Yein didn’t care what damage it did to them, if it even hit them—she was too overcome with grief to see.

Yein held Wonwoo closer and pulled the arrow out of his chest before diving into the water, couldn’t stop her tears from running down her cheeks, floating behind her in a trail. Wonwoo died because of her actions, her carelessness. If she had just been careful, he wouldn’t have died. If she hadn’t gone looking for him, he would still be alive. If, if, if.

If Wonwoo was still alive.

Yein buried her face in the crook of Wonwoo’s neck.

What she would do to get him back.

She tightened her hug, her hand around his arm, and saw something. She stared hard at it, the pearl on her wrist dully reflecting the light from the surface, and realized that she could do that.

Whatever to get him back.

It wasn’t something that Yein mulled over. She just carried him upward, as close to the surface as possible, and looked down at him. She put her fingers on his eyelids and slowly brought them down to close his eyes, could no longer take the blank stare from his eyes. She brushed the hair from his face and her hand trailed down his cheek, her fingers idling at the spot where she left a kiss at just last night. He looked tragically beautiful.

“I’m sorry,” Yein whispered as she leaned down. She felt a sharp pain in her chest, like she was going to cry once again, but no tears came out of her eyes. “Thank you.” She had no reason to cry in grief over this.

“I love you, Wonwoo,” Yein whispered against Wonwoo’s lips before she leaned in, her cold lips touching his soft ones, and she thought Wonwoo’s lips couldn’t have been this cold if he was still alive.

If he was still alive, Yein smiled into the kiss as she took in the sight of Wonwoo’s face one last time before her eyelids fluttered close.

A head popped out of the water with a big gasp. Wonwoo coughed as hard as he could, believing he had inhaled water just now. His mouth opened and closed, taking in big gulps of oxygen. He looked around, trying to pinpoint where he was, and saw that he wasn’t far from the rocks that he and Yein usually sat at.

Wonwoo’s eyes widened. Yein was there. He frantically looked around but she wasn’t there, so he deeply inhaled and dived in again, ready to search for her, but was stunned to find pearls around him. His hand moved to grab one as it floated in front of his face. Small, shiny pearl, like the one Yein had on her bracelet.

He came up to the surface and it didn’t take long for him to understand what it was.

“She exchanged her life for her prince’s,” Wonwoo muttered, looking down at the pearl in his hand in disbelief, before his feeling turned into anguish, the agonizing pain shooting throughout his body.

All that was left for him of her were the pearl,

and the familiar coldness on his lips.


End file.
